[WRC] News & Rumours 2018

I just want to highlight this quote from today's Autosport that really sums up the genius of this idea:

"We do not exclude shortening the rallies, but I see it in the bigger strategic context with 14, 15 or 16 rallies. If we are talking about [shortening] one or two rallies, it wouldn't make much difference, but if we shorten them all then this can save 15 or 16 [days] - that's more than two weeks in a hotel. Then we are talking."

Oliver Ciesla, are you seriously trying to suggest that two weeks of room and board for ~50 people is comparable to the cost of traveling to and competing in three additional events around the world? It's not even the same order of magnitude! Are you seriously pretending that this would be a cost saving exercise? It's either unbelievably dishonest or completely economically illiterate. I'm not sure which is worse.

I don't like this guy. I don't think he actually gets rallying, and I don't think he's a good promoter for the sport.

No idea if this is a stage but this is what most roads around Concepcion in Chile looks like if anyone wants to see.
Like a mix of Australia and Mexico.

https://www.google.no/maps/@-36.8028...7i13312!8i6656

Sundays now are a bit of bore with so little stage km’s. So in that sense, two days would be enough. But the long service breaks are also boring, so a remote service with tyres, fuel and emergency repairs would allow more action per day. So no shorter rallies km wise, but mor packed to two days.
Make a rule that allows only limited overhaul betweeen two consecutive events and the manufacturers are forced to build more robust cars and Tommi’s problem is also solved...

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Originally Posted by sonnybobiche

I don't like this guy. I don't think he actually gets rallying, and I don't think he's a good promoter for the sport.

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What are his qualifications for the job? He shouldn't be anywhere near the job. He's stealing a living.

I must say (and I am telling it many times), that I am disappointed what Red Bull Media did as a promoter in WRC. I was expecting much, much more that they have shown. And of course lot of stupid words and crazy future decisions by their boss, lot of them didnt happened, thanks god...

Sadly I've come to expect that prominent figures in the WRC will only ever make suggestions that completely undermine the integrity of the sport, while doing nothing to enhance it, purely to serve their own lazy personal interests. They're so regularly completely at odds with what a fan of rallying would want, it's sad but predictable. Ciesla though, while not being the most outrageous of these, is probably the biggest failure of the prominent figures. He's taking the sport nowhere. The core rally 'product' is great now, yet he and Red Bull Media seem to have no ambition, ability or vision for developing the main thing the WRC needs, more mainstream reach and exposure. Instead they're buggering about trying to further water down the 'events' we have...

The basic 'world feed' coverage most broadcasters show is quite soulless, the Red Bull TV coverage is better and presents the WRC more like a mainstream sport, but it's on a channel that nobody watches and even many rally fans don't know about. The official You Tube content is largely lacklustre, almost a token gesture. Live stages and onboards are hidden on WRC+, ironically available free most of the time if you're willing to jump through the hoops to get it. Why not make that content freely accessible to all? Make more coverage available live on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube.

The thing I found most annoying about the 10km stage length idea being pushed is that none of the people in the sport seem to acknowledge that the stage length is completely irrelevant to these important kids with their short attention span's, most don't even have access to compelling coverage of the sport in the first place! When amateur videographers on You Tube get 500k to 1m+ views for their rally footage on You Tube, but the official channel regularly fails to reach 100k with most of their videos, surely Red Bull and Ciesla need to be asking more questions about the way they present the sport.

Saying that, I think the idea of a WRC round in Chile is fine. There seems to be a good local rally scene there and a fan base to serve. It's definitely a better proposition than Turkey or Croatia...

I find it funny how people argue that Sundays got boring. You know why they did? Because Sundays got shortened. Towards the end of an event often times drivers aren't willing to throw points away. Well guess what, when Saturday evening is the end of a rally drivers will go conservative by Saturday afternoon. In a few years people will advocate one and a half day events and after that they moan how boring Saturdays are and that therefore they should be dropped. This is just silly.

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Originally Posted by SubaruNorway

No idea if this is a stage but this is what most roads around Concepcion in Chile looks like if anyone wants to see.
Like a mix of Australia and Mexico.

https://www.google.no/maps/@-36.8028...7i13312!8i6656

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7DbPPgqqvo

I think this video is from the candidate event last year.

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7DbPPgqqvo

I think this video is from the candidate event last year.

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Very many different cars, I like !

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Originally Posted by pantealex

Very many different cars, I like !

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And runki!

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7DbPPgqqvo

I think this video is from the candidate event last year.

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It doesn't really bring anything new to the sport like NZ would have does it?
It's just a mix of what we have, even looks a bit like Wales in places.

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Originally Posted by SubaruNorway

It doesn't really bring anything new to the sport like NZ would have does it?
It's just a mix of what we have, even looks a bit like Wales in places.

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Yeh, looks a bit like Wales and NZ. But I thought NZ was totally out of the question financially?

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Originally Posted by SubaruNorway

It doesn't really bring anything new to the sport like NZ would have does it?
It's just a mix of what we have, even looks a bit like Wales in places.

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I can't remember the last time WRC stopped by at Chile.

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Originally Posted by SubaruNorway

It doesn't really bring anything new to the sport like NZ would have does it?
It's just a mix of what we have, even looks a bit like Wales in places.

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Ha ha ha ha.

A new country that has never been in the WRC brings nothing 'new', but a country that was last in the WRC recently does?!

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Originally Posted by Watson

I find it funny how people argue that Sundays got boring. You know why they did? Because Sundays got shortened. Towards the end of an event often times drivers aren't willing to throw points away. Well guess what, when Saturday evening is the end of a rally drivers will go conservative by Saturday afternoon. In a few years people will advocate one and a half day events and after that they moan how boring Saturdays are and that therefore they should be dropped. This is just silly.

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Yes, in most rallies Sunday stages is useless, especially on those who have two or three stages. I do not mean that we should delete Sunday, but the way how it is, I don't like it at all, because apart from one fight or two, all the other drivers are just driving to the finish.
I also believe that Power Stage shouldn't be the last stage. Wouldn't be better to have it in the middle of rally, at the start of saturday second loop with new tires and not be required to make management of tires on the final day?

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Originally Posted by rallyfiend

Ha ha ha ha.

A new country that has never been in the WRC brings nothing 'new', but a country that was last in the WRC recently does?!

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I'm talking in terms of road character, tight forests with no view doesn't make for good footage in my view.
I'm sure it will be popular by the locals but for media and TV it probably won't be anything special like you would get from a place like Wanga Coast, that can't be so hard to understand? :)

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Originally Posted by the sniper

Sadly I've come to expect that prominent figures in the WRC will only ever make suggestions that completely undermine the integrity of the sport, while doing nothing to enhance it, purely to serve their own lazy personal interests. They're so regularly completely at odds with what a fan of rallying would want, it's sad but predictable. Ciesla though, while not being the most outrageous of these, is probably the biggest failure of the prominent figures. He's taking the sport nowhere. The core rally 'product' is great now, yet he and Red Bull Media seem to have no ambition, ability or vision for developing the main thing the WRC needs, more mainstream reach and exposure. Instead they're buggering about trying to further water down the 'events' we have...

The basic 'world feed' coverage most broadcasters show is quite soulless, the Red Bull TV coverage is better and presents the WRC more like a mainstream sport, but it's on a channel that nobody watches and even many rally fans don't know about. The official You Tube content is largely lacklustre, almost a token gesture. Live stages and onboards are hidden on WRC+, ironically available free most of the time if you're willing to jump through the hoops to get it. Why not make that content freely accessible to all? Make more coverage available live on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube.

The thing I found most annoying about the 10km stage length idea being pushed is that none of the people in the sport seem to acknowledge that the stage length is completely irrelevant to these important kids with their short attention span's, most don't even have access to compelling coverage of the sport in the first place! When amateur videographers on You Tube get 500k to 1m+ views for their rally footage on You Tube, but the official channel regularly fails to reach 100k with most of their videos, surely Red Bull and Ciesla need to be asking more questions about the way they present the sport.

Saying that, I think the idea of a WRC round in Chile is fine. There seems to be a good local rally scene there and a fan base to serve. It's definitely a better proposition than Turkey or Croatia...

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Direct to the point...sadly it doesn't seem like anyone up there gives a rat ass about everything you just wrote...perhaps they should do a survey like they did back in 2013/4...

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Originally Posted by Watson

I find it funny how people argue that Sundays got boring. You know why they did? Because Sundays got shortened. Towards the end of an event often times drivers aren't willing to throw points away. Well guess what, when Saturday evening is the end of a rally drivers will go conservative by Saturday afternoon. In a few years people will advocate one and a half day events and after that they moan how boring Saturdays are and that therefore they should be dropped. This is just silly.

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I think there's a good psychological reason to end Saturday night. Marshals, volunteers and spectators have Sunday to get home and back to work Monday. If necessary start the event properly on Thursday. It's easier to be absent during one week than parts of two.

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

Yeh, looks a bit like Wales and NZ. But I thought NZ was totally out of the question financially?

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New Zealand had the required funding Ok then someone came along with a whole lot more Euro and brought their way in over the top of NZ

speaking about the coverage, i think no one wont use WRC+ anymore now after they made a deal with Rallysafe

here is a video about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY3EmQi3NVU

and you can see how it works from here, https://app.rallysafe.com.au/Event/PublicView/2483

and they have Monte already on upcoming events :) https://app.rallysafe.com.au/Event/EventViewer#upcoming

i didnt know anything about it before they announced the deal to work with WRC but i have only seen good words about it.

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Originally Posted by EstWRC

speaking about the coverage, i think no one wont use WRC+ anymore now after they made a deal with Rallysafe

here is a video about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY3EmQi3NVU

and you can see how it works from here, https://app.rallysafe.com.au/Event/PublicView/2483

and they have Monte already on upcoming events :) https://app.rallysafe.com.au/Event/EventViewer#upcoming

i didnt know anything about it before they announced the deal to work with WRC but i have only seen good words about it.

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You can bet your life that won't be accessible for the WRC events....

what are you on about? You cant see they have Monte Carlo there?

Status Awareness Systems (SAS) is pleased to announce that following an extensive selection process by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), SAS has been confirmed as the timing, tracking and connectivity solutions’ provider for the 2018-2022 FIA World Rally Championship seasons.

https://www.fia.com/news/wrc-fia-wor...y-championship

I'll still use WRC+. I don't mind paying for what I support. I still buy Venyl and CDs of my favourite artists. I'm old fashioned like that.

you par for it? theres a free code every month :)

if this rallysafe tracking is as good as it seems, then goodbye from me for WRC+.

That doesn't mean they'll be allowed to publicly share timing and tracking data.

SIT wasn't, what makes you think this company would?

i dont think anything, we will see if the rally starts

and what do they show for us then? only stage end times and split times? whats the point of that if we have them already on wrc.com and in wrc+?

we will see how it will go, I'm currently preparing for Monte Carlo and there are some problems (solvable) with the system. In my private opinion they didn't notice the difference between national events and WRC rallies... Many people complained about the SIT system, but for the moment it looks like it was much more "user friendly"

Here is a more recent video about what rallysafe does. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcrzwH16Fp4

I am used to using RallySafe to follow both tracking maps and timing for several years.
I am anticipating on WRC events they will be channeled thru WRCplus.
I am more than happy to pay for WRCplus, I do not expect to get everything in life for free.

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Originally Posted by KiwiWRCfan

I am more than happy to pay for WRCplus, I do not expect to get everything in life for free.

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This. Besides, I watch the old onboards and highlights more than the monthly fee is worth

well, the first years i paid for it too and i dont expect everything to be free in life but right here i agree with the majority of this forum that it SHOULD be free for fans.

Since last year they started to give out those monthly free codes and since then i have used those and not paid to them.

Like i said, if this rallysafe tracking and timing system works like a clockwork and is for free then i see no point of having WRC+ too because it is basically the same thing with the exception of onboards and live stages but this is my problem.

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Originally Posted by EstWRC

Like i said, if this rallysafe tracking and timing system works like a clockwork and is for free then i see no point of having WRC+ too because it is basically the same thing with the exception of onboards and live stages but this is my problem.

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Split times have been available for free from wrc.com and tracking is not really necessary if you listen to the wrc radio, they usually notice if someone has stopped. Unless, of course, you want to tweet/post something before they noticed ;)

I have never used WRC+

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Originally Posted by EstWRC

i dont think anything, we will see if the rally starts

and what do they show for us then? only stage end times and split times? whats the point of that if we have them already on wrc.com and in wrc+?

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It seems to me youmisunderstood how it works.

wrc.com and WRC+ are platforms that visualize the data (split times, stage times and for WRC+ also car positions live).

The data used by these will from 2018 be supplied by RallySafe instead of the company that supplied them previously.

Imo it's quite unlikely they will introduce different platform to visualize the data, at least not immediately.

I love WRC+ and have no problem paying. It is my lifeline to this fabulous sport. I use every aspect of the service. Very pleased.

Think WRC+ is decent, the cost for a year is not that much, 40 euros with the code WRC201X (X is for the current year) for a season pass. Totally fine with that.

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Originally Posted by Watson

I still buy Venyl and CDs of my favourite artists. I'm old fashioned like that.

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Vinyls - old fashioned? They're coming back, not old fashioned!

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Originally Posted by BigWorm

Think WRC+ is decent, the cost for a year is not that much, 40 euros with the code WRC201X (X is for the current year) for a season pass. Totally fine with that.



Vinyls - old fashioned? They're coming back, not old fashioned!

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CD's or purchased downloads are so last season. Vinyl is so mainstream that indie artists have started making cassettes again.

Sorry for the offtopic

Skoda cools talk of a WRC return


https://www.motorsport-news.co.uk/ne...-a-wrc-return/

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Originally Posted by EstWRC

Skoda cools talk of a WRC return


https://www.motorsport-news.co.uk/ne...-a-wrc-return/

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Nothing new...

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Originally Posted by EstWRC

Skoda cools talk of a WRC return


https://www.motorsport-news.co.uk/ne...-a-wrc-return/

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The very fact Hrabanek talked about it at all to me indicates it is a strong possibility, but probably for 2020.

In Skoda-speak anything but a complete denial means 'yes'

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

CD's or purchased downloads are so last season. Vinyl is so mainstream that indie artists have started making cassettes again.

Sorry for the offtopic

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The medium is not the point. The point is that I pay for the artist's work the same way I pay for my groceries and my boss pays me wages for my work. It's only fair.